20th Street construction has been underway for some time now and we are so excited to be entering the final phase! We are beginning the lane striping and flex lane painting this week (which is VERY exciting) so let’s break down how we got here and what to expect in the coming weeks.
We hope you’ve already seen our new brand for Downtown Birmingham. If not, as soon as you’re done here, you should head on over to downtownbhm.com! But even if you are already familiar, what you may not know is that the new BHM brand is about more than only downtown.
Rewind to 2020
REV and many other regional economic development partners plus the talented BIG Communications team started working together to create a new brand that represents the vibrant, growing Birmingham that we know and love. As the team prepped to create a flexible brand that could be adapted for different kinds of organizations and branding/marketing needs across the greater Birmingham region, audience research revealed that many people living in some of our peer cities and slightly larger cities didn’t have a negative or positive view of Birmingham. Our city simply wasn’t on their radar. However, when visitors actually experienced Birmingham, they found it to be a city of pleasant surprises.
BHM has MORE
So we shifted our thinking from building a brand that overcomes perceptions to building a brand that we can use to introduce today’s Birmingham and shine a light on all those pleasant surprises. We arrived at this: Birmingham has more. More passion, more talent. More history, more culture. More beauty, more in the works. Birmingham has more than you expected!
So you’ll be hearing us and our regional partners using that language a lot. And you’ll start seeing this BHM mark in places like downtown’s newly painted 20th Street flex lanes.
What are flex lanes?
The flex lane design is based on national best practices and follows the direction of multiple City of Birmingham planning efforts, including the City Center Master Plan (2019), APPLE Study (2018), the Regional Planning Commission’s B Active Plan, and Birmingham’s Complete Streets Ordinance . All recognize a need for a safer and more multimodal downtown, especially along pedestrian corridors like 20th Street North.
The design on 20th Street…
- creates a buffer from traffic for pedestrians on the sidewalk
- adapts to business needs like curbside food pickup, valet stands, and more creative uses
- gives bikes, scooters and other micromobility devices a well-defined space to travel in
- reduces the width of the travel lane, which is proven to reduce speeding, without changing the road’s capacity (meaning 20th can hold the same number of vehicles, but now they’re more likely to observe the speed limit)
Want to learn more about the thought process behind the design of flex lanes?
Parking Day 2020
We first tested out the flex lane concept during Parking Day 2020. ASLA, REV Birmingham, the City of Birmingham and CCDMC teamed up to transform a quarter block of 20th Street North by introducing flexible seating, fresh landscaping, reclaimed pedestrian space and multi-modal street design. We weren’t exactly sure what to expect from this first iteration, but the results were overwhelmingly positive! You can read more about that process by clicking here.
Further Flex Lane Testing
Since the Parking Day project proved to be such a success, we decided to test out the flex lanes a little more before diving all the way into our streetscape refresh project. In early 2021, the colorful triangle pattern that covered the flex lanes for close to a year made its appearance! This trial run helped us learn some do’s and dont’s on painting as well as start conversations with 20th Street stakeholders about what they’d like to see in the bigger 20th Street Refresh project going on now.
All of this has led us to where we are today as we get ready to present the final iteration of the flex lanes to you!
Where are we now?
As we mentioned earlier, we are in the final phase of construction which means all the exciting stuff is happening! This week we are beginning the lane striping and flex lane painting – we will be doing this two blocks at a time, so expect lots of updates on road closures (it’ll be worth it in the end, we promise)!
We highly recommend keeping an eye on our 20th Street page and signing up for our email list here to stay up to date on closings. More finishing touches such as perennials, planters, and furniture that will truly make the project feel complete will be put out near the end of the project, which will be here before you know it!
Remember, when you start seeing our lovely new Birmingham logo in the paint hitting the pavement over the coming weeks, it means that Birmingham has more today than it did before – and that’s more to be proud of in your city!
Related News
-
Why we say yay to two-way streets
Filed Under: Developer, Downtown Birmingham, Filling Vacant Spaces, Front Page, Transportation, Yaysayers
REV Birmingham is a long-time advocate for making the switch to two-way streets downtown, and this is something recommended by planners studying our downtown for years. In fact, the team that developed the 2004 City Center Master Plan recommended many street changes but noted 4th Avenue North conversion should take place “immediately.” We believe this project is a catalytic moment for Birmingham – but you may find yourself wondering why that is.
-
The Key Tool for Urban Revitalization: Downtown BHM's Business Improvement District
Filed Under: Business-Proving, Developer, Downtown Birmingham, Front Page, Get Involved, Potential-Proving, Why BHM
By the time REV took on BID management in 2018, downtown had a new set of needs from its BID. Downtown Birmingham in the ‘90s had a population mainly of 9 to 5 employees. But the downtown of 2018 had a whole new population of residents and visitors throughout the day and night. We had new opportunities to create positive experiences, inviting them into more downtown businesses and public spaces, and to keep them coming back for more.
-
Introducing the six businesses that call Nextec home
Filed Under: Business-Proving, Developer, Downtown Birmingham, Filling Vacant Spaces, Front Page, Historic Preservation, Potential-Proving, Why BHM
On the corner of 3rd Avenue and 16th Street North, you’ll find Nextec, a redevelopment of the 90-year-old, 65,000-square-foot Edwards Motor Company building (also formerly known as the Sticks ‘N’ Stuff building). With experience in historic renovation, developer Michael Mouron, chairman of Capstone Real Estate Investments, began this civic project in 2021 as a space for business startups to continue their work in the Magic City – a function encouraged by REV Birmingham.